Cave architecture Archives

Indian Ancient Architecture and Cave Architecture

Ancient Architecture

India is widely known for many things but architecture is also one among them, it is one of the earliest countries of the world with the earliest form of culture and many such things, Indian architecture is one thing to consider, The Mauryan empire created the first imprint of grand architecture in India in the way of temples, as you can see temples in every five kilometers at least.

Temple architecture is one of the hardest things to do than modern architecture or traditional architecture as it involves a lot of decorations and cravings, even the temple architecture varies according to place, if you look deeper into India different styles according to the states.

Woods were used as the primary architectural material in India from temples to forts until the 8^th to 9^th century, stones were rarely used but at the end of the 9^th century, India had more architecture like forts, palaces, and temples of stones.

India saw its earliest architecture made of stones in the Mauryan empire, buildings like stupas, viharas, and chaityas are the earliest architectures in India, played a very important role in ancient India by making wider stupas which can be even found today but in a collapsed state.

Cave Architectures

Indian architecture is famous for its cave architecture too it is also called rock-cut architecture as rocks are cut to make a construction, cave architecture is made out of a single rock by caving it with decorations and rooms, Buddhists and Jains played an important role in making the cave architectures possible one, it is one of specialized architecture concept which can mostly found in India and it is a rare architecture concept in the entire world too.

Ajanta caves are one of the famous cave architecture found in India and it is believed to have been built in the 2nd century and 4th century again, Ajanta caves are made out of a single large cave, that served for monastery purposes in the early days, now it is a tourist place in Maharashtra.

Shore temple in Mahabalipuram is another fantastic ancient architecture found in India and it is believed that the temple was planned and built for about 200 years, it is made out of single caves and more than seven similar architecture found in Mahabalipuram, lord Vishnu, and Shiva worshipped as main gods in the shrine.

Ellora caves are another amazing cave architecture in India, with 12 rock-cut viharas it is a gigantic rock-cut architecture that is related to Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus at various times, with cut off made from rock plateaus constructed in the 800^th century and is amazing even today but a bit old but still it is gold.

Indian Architecture Styles: Facts and Characteristics

Indian Architecture Styles

While we are astonished by nature, and architectural pictures from Instagram, and Pinterest we do really forget what we have near us too. If you look deeper into the history and art of India it’ll take you into an unimaginable world and tells you tales that you never heard.

India is one of the world’s largest populated countries and has different religions mixed like a cocktail, India is famous for many things but when it comes to its identity of India we always look back and see the architecture which left us to be proud of, every architecture or temples around you tell history and India have many like this, did you know that India has more than ten architectures which date back to at least 1000 years, with various architecture style, design, structure, and pattern, India is a mixture of various beautiful elements.

From the Ellora cave in Maharashtra to the shore temple in Tamil Nadu, Indian architecture stands straight and proud by holding its history strongly, many of the world’s architects still wonder how they built such amazing architecture only with human power. All the temples and architecture tell us how well and civilized our forefathers lived and how they respected art and tradition with equality in nature and human beings. India had majorly three major types of social architecture styles cave architecture, rock architecture, and temple architecture.

Cave architecture dates back to about the age of civilization and still some of them are alive like Ellora caves in Maharashtra, and the shore temple in TamilNadu, cave architecture is building a temple or any other in the cave, by adding various structures and designs it looks a bit of royal and more of the arts that lived thousands of year back.

Rock architecture is one of the famous architecture used to build temples all over India and it was spread by Buddhist monks, more than ten temples like Brihadeeswara temple in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, Meenakshi temple, Madurai, Tamilnadu are still stood as historical proof of the architecture style used, temples are built with a single material like rock is called rock architecture and it also called as a pure construction or temple as only one of material used to build the entire temple.

Various kings at various times followed the pattern and style of rock architecture and you can see this architecture in almost all the states of India. Temple architecture is the style used to build temples alone, like towers(entrance), and towers (main shrine), temple architecture also used more art to make the temple look astonishing.

India is a country of spirituality because it holds all the spiritual histories and architecture still alive today, a country with a vast amount of religions and languages but still shines in the field of architecture because of the magic and the culture along with love for art made it so, What we do least is to protect it like our home rather than damaging it and writing our names in the walls of famous architectures around the country, let us try to hold our history and spread the proudness with a smile in face and heart.